CHUKCHIS ASSEMBLING AT ANADYRSK FOR THE WINTER FAIR

A MAN OF THE YUKAGIRS

TUNGUSE MAN AND WOMAN IN BEST SUMMER DRESS

A CHUKCHI RUG OF REINDEER SKIN

Tungusesonreindeer-backmovingtheirencampment From a photograph in
The American Museum of Natural History.

A YURT OF THE SETTLED KORAKS IN MIDWINTER

AN ARCTIC FUNERAL

Theyurtinthe “StormygorgeoftheViliga” From
a painting by George
A. Frost.

MAPS

TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA

CHAPTER I

THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH LINE TO RUSSIA—­SAILING OF THE FIRST SIBERIAN
EXPLORING PARTY FROM SAN FRANCISCO.

The Russian-American Telegraph Company, otherwise
known as the “Western Union Extension,”
was organised at New York in the summer of 1864.
The idea of a line from America to Europe, by way of
Bering Strait, had existed for many years in the minds
of several prominent telegraphers, and had been proposed
by Perry McD. Collins, as early as 1857, when
he made his trip across northern Asia. It was
never seriously considered, however, until after the
failure of the first Atlantic cable, when the expediency
of an overland line between the two continents began
to be earnestly discussed. The plan of Mr. Collins,
which was submitted to the Western Union Telegraph
Company of New York as early as 1863, seemed to be
the most practicable of all the projects which were
suggested for intercontinental communication.
It proposed to unite the telegraphic systems of America
and Russia by a line through British Columbia, Russian
America, and north-eastern Siberia, meeting the Russian
lines at the mouth of the Amur (ah-moor) River on
the Asiatic coast, and forming one continuous girdle
of wire nearly round the globe.

This plan possessed many very obvious advantages.
It called for no long cables. It provided for
a line which would run everywhere overland, except
for a short distance at Bering Strait, and which could
be easily repaired when injured by accident or storm.
It promised also to extend its line eventually down
the Asiatic coast to Peking, and to develop a large
and profitable business with China. All these
considerations recommended it strongly to the favour